Officials Reveal a Secret Ruse to Evacuate Trump, and the F.D.A. Takes On a Food Safety Loophole

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**Tracy Mumford** (0:32)
From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, August 11th. Here's what we're covering.
Why aren't you flying the new plane home?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:45)
Say what?

**Dan Egan** (0:46)
Why aren't you flying on the new Air Force One home?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:48)
It's flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases where we can show it to the people.

**Tracy Mumford** (0:54)
Last month, President Trump and his team announced a last-minute switch as he was leaving the NATO summit in Turkey. Instead of getting on the new Qatari-donated Air Force One that he'd taken to get there, he got onto an older Air Force One, amid reports that there were security concerns and that the newer plane hadn't been outfitted with the same defensive capabilities. His boarding was kind of rushed, and reporters who got on the older plane with him were told to pull their window shades down before takeoff.
The plane then flew to a military base in Britain, landed, and about 40 minutes later, Trump walked down the steps.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:32)
Do you know why they had us close our window blinds?

**Chris Buckley** (1:34)
That was not usual.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:36)
Well, yeah, because you're probably on a dangerous flight.

**Tracy Mumford** (1:43)
But the Times has now learned this was all part of an elaborate deception. Two senior US officials say that Trump didn't fly on the older Air Force One. Instead, after he boarded, he was then hidden in a large catering container that was lowered down from the other side of the plane and whisked away. They say he was actually flown to the UK base in a third plane. At that point, to complete the deception, Trump re-boarded the old Air Force One out of sight and proceeded to step out through the main door as he usually would. Reporters on that older plane were left to think they had been traveling with the president all along, making them unwitting participants in the ruse, and leaving them, along with the White House staff who was on board, to serve as unknowing decoys. The plan appears to have been developed in a matter of hours after officials determined that there had been a credible threat against the president from Iran, which borders Turkey.
While it's an unusual case of the public being deceived about the president's whereabouts, one former Secret Service agent who worked in protective details for presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush said the agency has used decoy motorcades and flights in the past. In response to questions from the Times, the White House reissued the same statement it gave immediately after Trump's trip back from Turkey. But it made a slight change. It initially said there were many threats against the president and, quote, we use every tool at our disposal, including distraction and misdirection, to address those threats.
When it reissued the statement yesterday, it removed the distraction and misdirection language.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:34)
In Washington, yesterday, The food industry continues to develop novel compounds and chemical combinations that do not exist in nature.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:44)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed a new rule to close what experts have called a long-standing loophole in food safety.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:52)
We don't even know exactly how many chemicals are in the food that Americans eat every day.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:00)
Since the 50s, food companies have been allowed to bypass requirements to get new ingredients reviewed by the government by saying that they are, quote, generally recognized as safe, a designation known as grass.
That workaround was originally intended to apply to common ingredients like vinegar or baking soda, but over the decades, companies have used it to quietly introduce at least a thousand substances into their products. Things like thickeners, extracts and flavorings, with little evidence that they are safe.
Now, under the Trump administration's new proposed rule, companies would have to tell the FDA about any new ingredients they plan to use and submit safety data. Food policy experts welcomed the effort to boost oversight of food manufacturers, with one telling the Times, It's been the wild west for them for long enough. But experts also say that the proposed changes leave a lot of wiggle room. For example, companies would still be allowed to decide for themselves if they think an ingredient is safe, and they wouldn't necessarily be required to submit any safety data for ingredients they're already using. Kennedy has been promising to take on the food industry ever since being appointed as health secretary, arguing that many Americans' diets have led to higher rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Federal health officials are also moving closer towards releasing an official definition of what qualifies as an ultra-processed food, a move that could help shape federal food policy when it comes to things like school lunches and dietary guidelines.